ArtistsNetwork.com 35and analyzing, and it’s one of the rea-
sons that I’m such an advocate of
spending time with the subject on the
spot. For instance, a cold, wet winter
landscape may reveal interesting
colors in lichen and dead grasses and
fascinating variations in grays into
the distance. It’s always worth the
eff ort of getting cold and wet to see
what’s happening in the sky.
With a marine scene, there can be
a surprising variety of color. Th e color
of the sea will change according to the
weather conditions, what’s under the
surface and what the sky is doing. I’ve
recently been working in Brittany, in
Essential
Palette
COOL:- cobalt blue
- cadmium lemon
- alizarin crimson
WARM: - ultramarine blue
- cadmium yellow
- cadmium red
EARTH: - yellow ochre
- raw sienna
- raw umber
- light red
- burnt sienna
- burnt umber
Northwestern France. Th e sea colors there range from
deep, cold blues to cerulean and emerald in varying
intensity. Off the coast of my native Yorkshire, on the
other hand, the sea on a cold winter’s day is more likely
to be rough and gray or even brown. Again, observation
is vitally important to get colors and tones as they are
rather than as you think they should be.
Considering my emphasis on color and tones, it’s
hardly surprising that I have a selection of paints that
I know will produce any color I want pretty well.
Familiarity over many years means that my process
of color mixing is intuitive. My basic palette consists of
12 colors: a warm and cool version of the three primary
colors plus six earth colors (see “Essential Palette,” at
right). I carry all of these in my smallest paint box.
If I’m using a larger box, I’ll add cerulean blue for a
colder blue, Prussian blue for an even darker and colder
blue, and brown madder usually sneaks in. Th at’s about
it. Th ese colors will work anywhere, whether in the
Arabian desert or paddling around in the mud on an
East Anglican marsh. I don’t usually have greens on
board—I prefer to mix my own, often directly on the
paper. I start by painting some blue, adding a little bit
of red, and then adding yellow in varying quantities.
It’s the complementary color principle in action.
I travel a lot. Last week I was in Brittany in France,
painting along the coast. A couple of months ago I was
working in India. My paints go with me wherever I go.
As I’ve grown older, I’ve found that locations I reveled in
painting years ago have changed beyond all recognition.
Little creeks and harbors have been developed into mari-
nas; deserted beaches now have hotels; even Venice has
the obscenity of cruise liners squeezing through the
Bacino di San Marco. I guess some would call it progress,
but it’s hard on the scenery. With a little eff ort, however,
there are places to be found where you can work in peace,
and where the 21st century doesn’t make itself quite so
apparent—places where it’s worthwhile to slow down
and look deeply, to study the landscape and the light, and
to use your paints to tell the story of what you see. WAMeet the Artist
David Howell (davidhowell.co.uk)
is a professional painter based in
the U.K. who works in watercolor,
oil and pastel. The artist’s favorite
subjects are landscapes, marine-
scapes, horse racing, field sports
and anything else that takes his
fancy. He travels widely but is just
as happy to be tramping around
familiar territory, watching and
recording changing weather and seasons. He exhibits
with various U.K. galleries and at national-level
exhibitions. He’s a popular teacher and the author of
both books and magazine articles on painting. Howell
is a member and past president of the U.K.’s Royal
Society of Marine Artists.To learn more about
Howell’s painting
techniques, read his
books, Painting With
Watercolours and
Painting With Oils
(both Crowood
Press), which are
available in print
and digital format
at crowood.com.
He’s also the subject
of “Just Watercolour,”
a video available
from apvfilms.com.